The present invention relates to an optical system to be employed in an optical disc drive to read/write data from/to an optical disc.
Recently, technology in the field of magneto-optical disc drives has been greatly improved such that a data recording density on a magneto-optical disc has reached in excess of 10 Gbits/inch2.
In an example of such an optical disc drive, an objective optical system is mounted on an arm which is movable in a transverse direction of tracks formed on an optical disc for rough tracking. Firstly, the rough tracking is performed to locate the optical head in the vicinity of the track.
Then, by changing incident angle of a beam incident on the objective optical system is controlled to locate a spot of beam formed by the objective optical system for fine tracking, with use of a galvano mirror or the like. During the fine tracking operation, the beam spot is accurately located on one of the tracks whose pitch is, for example, 0.34xcexcm.
In the optical disc drive as described above, when the rough tracking is performed, the number of tracks over which the beam spot is moved is counted, and in accordance with the position from which the beam spot has been moved and the number of the tracks, the optical head is located in the vicinity of the desired track.
In one aspect, due to the above configuration, it is difficult to perform the rough tracking faster than a predetermined speed since passage of tracks should be confirmed in order to count the number of the tracks.
In another aspect, since a polarization direction of the beam emerged from the objective lens to the optical disc is fixed with respect to the objective lens. However, if an angle formed between the polarized direction of the beam incident on a track and a tangential line to the track at the point where the beam is incident varies depending on the position of the optical head with respect to the optical disc. In such a case, quantity of the tracking error signal may change in accordance with the angle formed between the polarized direction of the beam incident on a track and a tangential line to the track at the point where the beam is incident, which affect the tracking error signal, and may prevent an accurate tracking operation.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved optical disc drive capable of performing the tracking operation at relatively high speed.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved optical disc drive capable of performing a tracking operation accurately.
For the above objects, according to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical disc drive, provided with: an arm member carrying an objective optical system, the arm member being rotatable about an axis defined at one end portion, the objective optical system being provided at another end portion of the arm member; a light emitting system that emits light on the optical disc, via the objective optical system; a detecting system that receives light reflected by the optical disc via the objective optical system, a beam spot being formed on a light receiving surface of the detecting system, the detecting system detecting data related to an orientation of the beam spot with respect to the light receiving surface; and a control system which determines a current position of the arm member based on the data related to the orientation of the beam spot.
Since the rough tracking is performed by monitoring the orientation of the beam spot formed on the light receiving surface of the detecting system, and it becomes unnecessary to count the number of the tracks, the rough tracking can be performed at a relatively high speed.
Optionally, the control system performs a tracking operation by moving the arm member so that the current position coincides with a desired position.
Further optionally, the light receiving surface may include four light receiving areas arranged in matrix. The data related to the orientation of the beam spot may be obtained as a difference between a sum of amounts of light received by obliquely arranged two light receiving areas and a sum of amounts of light received by another obliquely arranged two light receiving areas.
Still optionally, the optical disc drive may include a deflecting optical system provided between the light emitting system and the objective optical system. The deflecting optical system deflects a light beam emitted by the light emitting system towards the objective optical system in order to change incident angle of the light beam incident on the objective optical system so that a position on the optical disc at which the light beam is incident is changed. With this configuration, a rough tracking may be performed by rotating the arm member without actuating the deflecting optical system, and a fine tracking may be performed by actuating the deflecting system without moving the arm member.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical disc drive, which includes: an arm member carrying an objective optical system, the arm member being rotatable about an axis defined at one end portion, the objective optical system being provided at another end portion of the arm member; a light emitting system that emits light on the optical disc, via the objective optical system; a detecting system that receives light reflected by the optical disc via the objective optical system, a beam spot being formed on a light receiving surface of the detecting system, the detecting system detecting data related to an orientation of the beam spot with respect to the light receiving surface; an orientation changing device inserted in an optical path between the light emitting system and the objective optical system, the orientation changing device changing the orientation of the beam spot formed on the light receiving surface of the detecting system; and a control system which controls the orientation changing device to maintain a predetermined orientation of the beam spot with respect to the light receiving surface of the detecting system in accordance with the data related to the orientation of the beam spot detected by the detecting system.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided an optical disc drive, which is provided with: an arm member carrying an objective optical system, the arm member being rotatable about an axis defined at one end portion, the objective optical system being provided at another end portion of the arm member; a light emitting system that emits light on the optical disc, via the objective optical system; a deflecting optical system provided between the light emitting system and the objective optical system, the deflecting optical system deflecting a light beam emitted by the light emitting system towards the objective optical system to change incident angle of the light beam incident on the objective optical system to change a position on the optical disc at which the light beam is incident; a detecting system that receives light reflected by the optical disc via the objective optical system, a beam spot being formed on a light receiving surface of the detecting system; a half-wave plate inserted in an optical path from the light emitting system to the objective optical system; a rotating mechanism for rotating the half-wave plate; and a control system which performs a rough tracking for positioning the beam spot at a position in the vicinity of a desired track without actuating the deflecting optical system and a fine tracking for accurately positioning the beam spot on the desired track by actuating the deflecting system without moving the arm member, the control system controlling the rotating mechanism to rotate the half-wave plate when the rough tracking is performed such that an orientation of the beam spot formed on the light receiving surface remains unchanged.
It is possible to maintain the orientation of the beam spot formed on the light receiving surface of the detecting system. Accordingly, when the conventional rough tracking operation is executed by rotating the arm member, the tracking operation is executed accurately.
Optionally, the light receiving surface may include four light receiving areas arranged in matrix, the data related to the orientation of the beam spot being obtained as a difference between a sum of amounts of light received by obliquely arranged two light receiving areas and a sum of amounts of light received by another obliquely arranged two light receiving areas.